GLOCESTER – At a recent special meeting, the Glocester Town Council tried to determine exactly how potential increased funding would be used by the local schools, if approved by voters.
But the task, they were told in talks with school officials, is not that easy, because of possible unforeseen expenses, including state and federal aid for the 2025-26 school year, as well as other variables such as unexpected transportation costs, special needs and other expenses, which are hard to determine ahead of time. Presently, the council is considering asking for a 1.5 percent increase in taxes, about $350,000, in hopes of rehiring 13 aides who were laid off from the district, as well as providing needed funds for other school expenses.
“I don’t know if taxpayers will vote ‘yes,’ unless they know exactly what it is going to be spent on,” said Councilor Stephanie Calise said of the proposed tax increase.
The special meeting follows approval last month by the General Assembly of legislation allowing the town of Glocester to pursue a vote for a supplemental tax exceeding the maximum allowed according to state regulations, which cap levy increases at four percent each year. Glocester voters passed an initial $35.5 million budget in a referendum in May, but district officials have said the funding fell short of what’s needed for the coming year – and soon after announced plans to lay off 13 teacher’s aides.
The council had previously asked for a tentative plan for how the potential increase would be spent by July 7, a date which, Supt. Renee Palazzo explained, was impossible to meet due to holidays and lack of time. The date was proposed in hopes that the referendum could be put before voters in September.
“We didn’t have a school committee meeting until July 8,” Palazzo explained. “The letter comes to me saying what we need on Tuesday, July 2. Friday is July 4. There is no way I can get a school committee meeting together and post the agenda 48 hours before and get all this together by July 7.”
“One thing we need to be awful clear about on our end is that there have been rumors out there,” responded Council Vice President Walter Steere. “Let’s clear them up right now. There are rumors saying if this passes some of the money will be used for town things. Absolutely not. I don’t know where that came from, but that is absolutely false. Any money – if the ballot is approved – would go to the schools.”
How it would be used by the schools, however, is difficult to predict, according to Palazzo.
Right now, she explained, the schools are planning on opening with the amount in the budget approved by voters in the May referendum – an amount far below what was requested by the School Committee. If the referendum increase is approved, they will then have to decide what to do next with those additional funds.
“The biggest challenge is to tie the school department into saying that this money will be spent on this and leave the taxpayers thinking that the money can only be spent on this,” said Palazzo. “Right now we are planning without that money because we don’t know if we are going to get it.”
There may be other student needs that arise in the meantime as schools prepare to open, she explained.
“I don’t know what that looks like,” added Palazzo. “We will create and work with and propose whatever we need to ensure that we get our students’ needs met with appropriate staff. The majority would absolutely go towards faculty and staff because that’s what the majority of the cut was. We are not looking to put the money anywhere else other than what students’ needs are.”
But if unexpected expenses do come up, she added, they may have to reallocate those funds.
“Right now, we are working to open the schools in September,” said Palazzo. “That is where my mind is.”
“How can I in good faith say this is what it is going to be spent on, if I don’t know what it is going to be spent on?” asked Calise.
“We know that all the money we receive will go towards student needs,” said School Committee member Marc Rizzo. “We can give you an idea of how many of that staff, if we potentially need to cover transportation costs that come up, but we cannot agree that the ballot has to read that (this) many staff members are going to be hired back, because then we’re stuck with that.”
“The ballot question will read something to the effect that ‘shall the town of Glocester approve a supplemental tax increase of *blank* to fund school department operations and avoid the loss of critical town services’ – exactly as the statute was written,” responded Councilor Jonathan Burlingame, the council’s liaison to the School Committee. “We will not add any other requirements. But we will give an explanation to the voters: this is what the School Committee has said and intends to do with it.”
After more discussion, members of the council and school committee agreed to sit down together at a special workshop/meeting to help work out a plan for the funds, so that the referendum can be put before voters on October 7.
Concerns about future school budgets and how those are going to be addressed were also raised.
Palazzo, who took over as superintendent of the local district in 2022, explained that the process is still somewhat new to her, and that she is working to try to resolve the existing problems before moving forward. She added that she is not going to play the role of a victim in the position.
“I am someone who stepped into a deficit that has been going on for probably 10 years that I hear,” said Palazzo. “I am on this position to help and support because I am the superintendent at the region, and I don’t need to do this additional work. I want to. I care about the students. I care about the taxpayers and I am sitting in this seat because I care.”
“Everybody agrees that this situation is horrible,” said Council President William Worthy. “But, it’s here. The only reason we look back is to see why it happened, and make sure we don’t do it again. When you can take some of that information with you, you can make a better decision to move forward. I think the relationship between the town and the school committee and the schools, all of the schools, should be a very trusting relationship. You guys have a lot of money, and we get left with a few cents on the dollar for town stuff. When we did the 6 percent knowing that you guys were in a predicament, we did that in good faith. There’s no skin on the bone here in Glocester on our budget.”
Palazzo assured the council there was no skin on the bone in the school budgets either.
Worthy added that it would be good for voters to approved the referendum, given the circumstances.
“This is a very big decision for the town, and we have to get it right,” he said.
To that end, both the superintendent and the council agreed that all voters need to be made aware of the reality of the situation and not allow a small minority of disgruntled voters determine the future of the town’s schools by spreading misleading information.
“A minority can swing the vote when the majority aren’t even aware of what is going on,” agreed Councilor Cheryl Greathouse.
